The year that was 2011 is coming to an end, and so it’s time to look back at the biggest news items of the year (and say “Welcome!” to Roland Emmerich’s favorite year). This retrospective is in lieu of actual weekly movie news, which there isn’t much of around Christmas. This is also a chance to look forward, as most of the movies that were announced in 2011 are still in our collective futures. And so, here are twelve “Fresh Development” movie news items from the past year, one for each month, that also represent some of the biggest upcoming movies of the next few years (ie, this list is a combination of movies that might be “Fresh” and those that might be box office hits as well).
Nearly a year later, the world just last week got its first glimpse of Catwoman and Bane in The Dark Knight Rises, along with all of the confusion and online debate about what exactly Bane says. It’s nice to see that the teacher from Peanuts is still getting work. That so much time separates the revelation of who Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy are playing, and our first images of them in motion, is yet another reminder of how long it takes to get these big budget superhero movies on the big screen.
Legendary Pictures, Warner Bros and director Zack Snyder didn’t actually start filming The Man of Steel until August, but in February, we learned who exactly would be the new Superman. Fans of Showtime’s The Tudors knew who he was, but at that point, with the trailer for Immortals still a few months away, most fans had to Google Cavill’s name to get an idea of what he even looked like. The casting of Superman himself was just the biggest news item in a year that saw plenty of other articles devoted to The Man of Steel. By the number of actors cast in recognizable roles, it was obvious that The Man of Steel was going to have a massive ensemble cast. Among the others cast this year were Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Russell Crowe as Jor-El, Lawrence Fishburne as Perry White, Michael Shannon as General Zod, and Diane Lane and Kevin Costner as Ma and Pa Kent. Unfortunately, 2012 will come and go and we still will not have seen this movie, as it’s not currently scheduled for release until June 14, 2013.
As much press as was devoted to the casting of The Man of Steel, this next movie probably received double the attention in 2011. And yet, as recently as March, the world didn’t even know for sure that director Quentin Tarantino’s next movie would be a “Spaghetti Western” set in the American South during the days of slavery. Indeed, at that point, we didn’t even know the title would be Django Unchained, much less that the cast would include Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Kurt Russell. Nope, until then, only Christoph Waltz, the breakout star from Inglourious Basterds, was mentioned as being cast (as he eventually was). Unlike The Man of Steel, we will indeed (almost) have an idea what the fuss was all about by this time next year, as The Weinstein Company has scheduled Django Unchained for December 25, 2012.
The Hurt Locker may have made big Oscar news in early 2010, but Jeremy Renner continued to surf on that film’s buzz (and that of his own performance, obviously) well into 2011. In April, having already locked major roles in The Avengers and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, Jeremy Renner achieved the rare distinction of being cast in three major action film franchises. And he did it by taking over a franchise previously associated with just one actor, Matt Damon, because the movie in question is at Universal Pictures, and it’s called The Bourne Legacy. Rather than replacing Matt Damon directly as Jason Bourne, Jeremy Renner will be playing an entirely different agent trained by the same Treadstone operatives. Frequent Bourne screenplay adaptor (and director of Duplicity and Michael Clayton) Tony Gilroy is directing The Bourne Legacy, and the film’s cast also includes Rachel Weisz, Joan Allen, Albert Finney, Scott Glenn and Stacy Keach. Universal Pictures is currently scheduling The Bourne Legacy for August 3, 2012.
Sometimes, people are just in the right place at the right time. This year, in the case of director Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), it was a case of being smart and/or lucky enough to be developing exactly the right movie. The world learned on May 2nd of the death of terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, and within 24 hours, the world also knew of Bigelow’s plans for a movie called (at the time) Kill Bin Laden. Rather than having to compete with a gaggle of other filmmakers all racing to make a movie about Osama bin Laden’s death, Kathryn Bigelow already had a script and a production pretty much ready to start. All that had to be changed in Bigelow’s story of Navy SEALS looking for OBL was the third act, in which the raid on his compound is actually executed. Bigelow’s project (which was also picked up by Sony Pictures) hasn’t yet started filming, but the actors reportedly in talks to costar in the ensemble cast include Tom Hardy (Bane from The Dark Knight Rises), Guy Pearce (Memento), Idris Elba (Heimdall in Thor), and Rooney Mara (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). It’s a good bet that Sony Pictures probably hopes to get this currently untitled military thriller in theaters by this time in 2012.
As much as Quentin Tarantino was in the news this year, 2011 also marked the beginning of production for the Coen Bros on their next movie, and for the most part, people sort of ignored it. This is hardly a new thing for the Coens, who are often able to make their movies in relative obscurity, although that doesn’t entirely make sense, given their impressive track record (Fargo, The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, True Grit, etc). It was in late June this year that it was first revealed that the Coens will next be working on a 1960s folk music biopic (loosely) based upon the memoirs of the late Dave van Ronk. That project is now known by the title Inside Llewyn Davis, and the cast includes John Goodman, Justin Timberlake, and Carey Mulligan, with Oscar Isaac (Sucker Punch, Drive) as the title character.
Although it might seem like Hollywood is perpetually stuck in a cycle of remakes and sequels, the art of the true story (and/or biopic) is still alive. Big deal producer Mike Medavoy (Black Swan, Zodiac) proved that in July by securing an agreement to make a movie based upon the true story of the 33 Chilean miners trapped in the Copiapo copper and gold mine in 2010. Medavoy moved quickly, hiring screenwriter Jose Rivera (The Motorcycle Diaries, Trade) to adapt the miners’ stories. There hasn’t since been any news in the five months since about who might direct this project, but given the awareness of the miners’ experience, it is likely to remain a top priority for Medavoy and Rivera for 2012 as well.
Just a few hours before this column was written this week, 20th Century Fox finally revealed the first teaser trailer for Prometheus, the new science fiction from director Ridley Scott. Previously referred to as a prequel to Alien, this new film still has much about it (including the graphics of the title) that hint at its connection to the Aliens franchise. In August, we learned of Ridley Scott’s plans to return to the other 1980s science fiction title that was a big reason he became a fan favorite. The movie in question is, of course, Blade Runner, that 1982 modern classic starring Harrison Ford in a neo-Noir tale of android intrigue set in a dystopian future Los Angeles. Scott signed on to direct a new Blade Runner film, but pretty much everything else about the project, including characters, casting, and whether or not it’s a prequel or a sequel, is yet unknown.
Just a couple of months after their Broadway play The Book of Mormon was the big winner at this year’s Tony Awards, Trey Parker and Matt Stone answered the next inevitable question with something like “someday, sure.” No definitive timeline or schedule (except “in several years”) was given, but that’s not really surprising anyway, given how busy Parker and Stone are likely to remain until at least 2013 with South Park. In addition to recognizing the continuing popularity of pretty much everything that Parker and Stone work on, it’s also worth mentioning that September was sort of a slow news month in the film business this year. Well, it’s true!
Osama bin Laden wasn’t the only celebrity in 2011 whose death was very closely followed by news of a related movie project. In the case of Steve Jobs, the center of attention was the biography by Walter Isaacson, which Jobs himself was actively involved in getting ready for publication in the final months of his life. Sony Pictures, the studio which had recent success with a similar movie in the form of The Social Network, was the studio that eventually acquired the rights to the book. The connections to The Social Network continued recently with the news that Aaron Sorkin is also considering signing on to adapt the script for the Steve Jobs movie. As with The Social Network, there is a strong chance that, rather than a full biopic, the Steve Jobs movie might only address a key moment in his story, or at most, just a few of those events (which include the Macintosh, the IPod, the IPhone and the IPad).
In annual retrospectives, the movies that are sometimes more likely to be remembered as defining the year are those films that seemed to come out of left field and surprise us all. In 2011, one movie that did that both critically and financially was also a dreaded “reboot” of a once popular franchise: Rise of the Planet of the Apes. In November, we learned of confirmation that 20th Century Fox is indeed planning on continuing the prequel story introduced in that film, with motion-capture star Andy Serkis and the film’s director Rupert Wyatt both signed for a sequel. What we don’t yet know is exactly what the next film will be about (though it’s easy to guess), or when 20th Century Fox might be able to get it produced.
Every week, one of the most debated subjects by commenters and readers of the Weekly Ketchup is the classification of news stories as either “Fresh Developments” or “Rotten Ideas.” In 2011, the long-in-development adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s popular science fiction novel Ender’s Game has mostly been labeled as a “Rotten Idea” for one reason: Ender’s Game is being directed by Gavin Hood (X-Men Origins: Wolverine). However awful Hood’s last movie might have been, however, the question lingers as to whether there is anything that could ever reverse that decision, and earn an Ender’s Game news story the “Fresh Development” label. The answer has come in recent weeks in the form of the casting, which continues to surprise. Asa Butterfield, who will play the title character, has now been joined officially by his Hugo costar Ben Kingsley, as well as Harrison Ford, Abigail Breslin (Little Miss Sunshine) and Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit). Individually, the “Rotten” legacy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine remained the dominant issue, but with all of them together now, Ender’s Game has at least temporarily earned the year-ending distinction of being a Fresh Develoment.
And with that, we conclude the first half of the Yearly Ketchup. Come back next week for the Most Rotten Ideas of 2011!
For more Weekly Ketchup columns by Greg Dean Schmitz, check out the WK archive, and you can contact GDS via Facebook or a RT forum message.
